When people write their resume, they tend to focus only on the content. And while it’s true that the content is extremely important in convincing potential employers of your competency, the appearance of the resume is just as important.

The reality is most hiring and HR managers don’t have the time to read through every resume they get in great detail, especially if they have numerous openings going on with many applicants for each position. They have to make a judgment call within only a few seconds as to whether they even want to continue looking. The way your resume looks could be the difference between whether you yourself get a closer look or get put into the rejection pile. It’s the paper version of a first impression, and first impressions are incredibly strong.

Consider some of the following questions before you send in your resume to a potential employer:

At first glance, does your resume look appealing, neat and have a professional appearance?

Did you use an appropriate margin width for your resume?

Do you use a consistent, readable font throughout the whole page?

Do you use bold, italics and underlines to help break up and organize your resume?

Does the spacing between each section look appropriate?

Is it easy to quickly scan over your resume and still get the most important information?

Taking all of this into account will help you ensure your resume looks professional and draws the attention of potential employers. It will make for an inviting document that wants the interviewer to get to know you better.

Every month there are millions of people who are looking for new jobs, even if they already have one. About ten percent of all of these job searchers swill switch employers in the next month. However, the majority of these people never report that they were looking for a new job. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that instead of these workers actively seeking the jobs, the jobs actually found them.

This information came from analyzing job search and employment transition rates over the past 20 years. On average, it’s estimated that about 4.3 percent of people with jobs were actively searching for a new job. Recent college grads, at a rate of 9.6 percent, were more likely to be searching for new jobs while employed compared to people age 45 or older (2.3 percent).

The really interesting statistics, however, are about hiring probability. While research suggests people who search for jobs are more likely to find a new position, employed people who did not search for a new job made up about 25.7 percent of all new hires, compared to 7.4 percent for employed people who were actively searching. Therefore, 77.6 percent of all employed people who changed employers were not actively looking for a new position. This is because there are so many more people who do not actively search than those who do.

So what does this mean? It would seem that a lot of these people are being attracted to new positions by corporate recruiters, by a friend alerting them to an opening or other similar tactics. Bottom line is…recruiters are an important ally in helping companies find that hard to find, passive candidate who might not be actively looking on the job boards.

Jim Mikula, Executive Recruiter

Thank you for visiting my blog! I'm proud to be the most tenured executive recruiter within the Cameron Smith & Associates firm, specializing in Sales, Category Management and Supply Chain opportunities in the Bentonville, Chicago and Minneapolis markets. Visit my about section or the Cameron Smith & Associates site to learn more about our company, our services for candidates and companies as well as my experience and qualifications.